Metal-metal interactions among dietary toxic and essential trace metals in the rat.

Exposure to toxic and essential metals is thought to be reflected by corresponding metal concentrations in tissues. However, toxic and essential metals may influence each other in regard to their retention in the body. Therefore a basic diet containing four toxic metals (As 7, Cd 9, Ni 13, and Pb 20 ppm) and adequate amounts of essential metals was fed to rats for 2 weeks. Test groups received the basic diet with increasing concentrations of one of the toxic metals (up to 90 ppm As, 180 ppm Cd, 365 ppm Ni, and 394 ppm Pb). As, Cd, Ni, Pb, Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn were determined by atomic emission spectroscopy in liver, kidney, intestine, brain, muscle, bone, skin, hair, and blood. A linear relationship between diet and tissue concentration is observed for As and Ni in the kidney, for Cd in the liver, and for Pb in the bone. In other tissues saturation was observed. While Cd-Fe interactions were common to most of the tissues, other interactions were detected only in specific tissues, e.g., As-Cu in the kidney, Cd-Zn in the liver, and As-Mn, Cd-Mn, or Ni-Cu in the intestine. Increases of renal Pb and intestinal Cd by dietary Ni, and a decrease in bone As by dietary Pb were the most pronounced interactions between the toxic metals. The results demonstrate that potential target organs for the evaluation of metal exposure need to be carefully analyzed for interfering metal-metal interactions.